U.S. Pat. No. 4,188,661, "Direct Drive Ballast With Starting Circuit" by Bruce L. Bower and Raymond H. Kohler, assigned to the assignee of the present invention, describes an electronic ballast circuit for driving a pair of fluorescent lamps. Central to the operation of that circuit is a high frequency (20 to 30 KHz) inverter comprising two transistors connected in series and operating in a push-pull mode. The inverter drives, via an output transformer, the cathode filaments of the lamps. The output transformer comprises a series-resonant primary winding coupled to the inverter output. The secondary of the output transformer includes one lamp voltage winding, three filament windings, two for separately supplying current to one filament of each of the lamps. The third filament winding supplies current to the remaining two, parallel-connected filaments. Also included on the secondary of the output transformer is a series connected discrete ballasting inductor in series with a pair of drive windings oppositely poled and connected in series between the first and second filament windings. These windings are arranged so as to establish a voltage differential across the cathodes of the respective lamps sufficient to effect firing of the lamps.
The ballast circuit further includes an interstage transformer having three primary windings each coupled in a loop that includes at least one lamp filament and a lamp filament winding. The secondary of the interstage transformer includes a pair of oppositely-poled windings coupled to the push-pull inputs of the inverter. Because the primary windings are coupled in a loop that includes the lamp filaments, they induce a voltage in the secondary proportional to the sum of filament currents. Proper phasing of the secondary windings provides the positive feedback necessary to sustain inverter operation. (A modified feedback arrangement disclosing a single primary winding connected in a loop with the two parallel-connected filaments is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,127,893, "Tuned Oscillator Ballast Circuit With Transient Compensating Means" by Charles A. Goepel and assigned to the assignee of the present inventions. See FIG. 2 of that patent).
U.S. Pat. No. 4,188,661 also discloses circuitry for enhancing the oscillator startup operation. Upon initial energization of the ballast circuit, a capacitor connected in parallel with one of the secondaries of the interstage transformer is slowly charged through a source of rapidly developed DC voltage. When the charge across the capacitor reaches a given magnitude, a series connected diac is switched on thereby discharging the capacitor through a relatively low impedance and causing a transient across the primary of the interstage transformer. This perturbation supplies base drive to at least one of the inverter transistors and assures oscillator startup. A voltage derived from the current in the primary of the output is rectified and applied to the diac in a manner that renders the diac nonconducting during steady state operation of the ballast circuit.
While it cannot be gainsaid that the circuitry disclosed in the patent discussed above represents a substantial advance in the state of the art of ballast design, with regard to both the conventional electromagnetic and the electronic types, the subject invention represents a further substantial advance in that art. In particular, it provides an efficient and effective circuit for dimming fluorescent lamps, thereby allowing control of the desired level of light delivered and minimizing the amount of electrical energy consumed.